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Greta Brown said she saw Tyler Wilkins running away just before he was shot.

"They hollered, 'Shoot! Shoot him!' and I looked up and saw what I think was Tyler going around the corner,'" Brown said. "They shot him. They shot him."

Police said Wilkins, who they said they recognized as someone wanted for questioning in another case, immediately started to run away when officers arrived. According to the police report, Wilkins threw a bag in a nearby yard and pulled a gun from his waistband. The report said the officer fired after seeing the gun.

Wilkins' family said they don't think police are telling the whole story.

Tammy Wilkins and Michael Thompson said their family has harbored bad feelings toward police in the past because of prior run-ins with the law. Tammy Wilkins said it's understandable that her son would have fled from officers.

"He's 16, and if I were Tyler, I would have ran from them, too," she said.

"He was a good kid, man," said Thompson. "He didn't deserve that."

Thompson said the shooting must have been a case of mistaken identity. He said he thinks police were really searching for Tyler Wilkins' older brother or a friend.

"Tyler ran from them. He didn't want to talk to them," Thompson said. "He doesn't see (police) as no protection, no help."

Tyler's sister, Kayla Wilkins, said she doesn't believe her brother would point a gun at an officer.

"I don't believe my little brother is that stupid," she said.

Family members said they also don't understand why officers didn't shoot him in the leg or some place that might have made his injury easier to survive.

Police said officers have to be able to act in situations where they feel their lives are in danger, and they said that is what happened in this case.